Elisha rode the bus towards home, trying to peer through the glass at the dark world outside; instead she saw only the reflection of what was in her proximity - her face, the face of the guy that sat next to her, along with all the other nameless strangers.
That guy had been causing her problems for at least twenty minutes. First he was standing with his phone out, probably taking pictures or something. Then, as soon as the lady that had the seat next to Elisha got up, the ass quickly rushed to sit next to her.
Fucking creep.
Elisha had drawn the hood around her face, but she still felt exposed. And angry too.
Why did I go out so late? And for such a distance...
On most days she would circle her neighborhood for an hour. A mere excuse to go outside, so that her muscles wouldn't atrophy from sitting inside all the time doing jack all. But today she had decided to walk towards the mall, and walk she did, until the soles of her feet started to burn and blisters formed, making any further journeying impossible.
The phone was dead so there was no calling her dad either. So she went to take the bus back.
Other people at her age were out partying and making careers and she couldn't even walk for too long without getting damaged somehow.
Useless.
In the end Elisha was a tiny thing even if she was eighteen - just barely over five feet and a little over a hundred pounds, with waves of blonde hair that came down to her neck, framing a pretty blue-eyed face with a delicately upturned and slightly freckled nose.
Elisha was two stations away from home when she felt the creep put a hand on her thigh. At first she hoped it was an accident, that he couldn't be that openly repulsive...
But she was clueless as to what to do next, surprised by the new situation, and sat frozen.
At that point he started moving his gnarled and hairy hand up and down her thigh, slowly, as if he was rewarding her obedience with a loving caress.
Elisha was so frightened that as soon as the next station came, she stood up, murmuring curses from trembling lips, nearly shoving him out of the seat, jumped out of the bus, and walked the rest of the way home, going on her heels to avoid stepping on her blisters, like some cartoon character.
It was quiet when she walked into the apartment, and the light in the hallway was out. Elisha figured she was alone, until she saw the chink of light escaping Dad's study.
You better not be dead,
thought Elisha, only half-joking. The old guy was nearing seventy, and much of her general stress level was owed to his potential demise. Not only would it be traumatic, but it would practically leave her homeless.
"I'm home!" She tried to hook her coat at the entry, and when it came falling down, she was so frustrated and tired that she left it there, pooled by the entrance.
She started shuffling towards his door. "Dad, are you alive?"
But instead of her father, Elisha found his girlfriend in the study, sitting on his great marmoreal desk with crossed legs, swapping left and right on her phone with a deep frown.
Not on Tinder, I hope...
For the most part Elisha got along rather well with her father, but she had never come to terms with the fact that he dated girls her age - nor forgiven him for it. Even her mother, God rest her soul, was only in her early twenties when she had conceived. And Elisha was not looking forward to any sibling.
Dad's latest girl, Athena, was a black girl that her father had seen for long enough for her to start showing up around the apartment. But beyond a few greetings here and there, Elisha avoided her, and couldn't say a thing about her as a person.
And this was the first time Elisha found her in the apartment alone. "Sorry, I thought Dad was in."
Athena swapped her finger over the phone two more times, once to the right, once to the left, then looked up at Elisha with a warm smile, her red lips all glossed up. "He's out for a bit. Sorry, he said I should wait for him. I hope it's not a bother."
"None at all," she nearly stammered. "I just wanted to tell I'm back. My phone died."
Athena swept a hand through her long, rich hair and smiled, bobbing her head in understanding. It glistened in the light, the soft waves and curls looking nearly liquid. "Well. I should get ready and clear out."
Elisha said goodbye and headed to the living room.
There she crashed on the couch and turned on the TV, curling up with her head on the armrest. She knew that she should get up and shower at the very least, but she was so tired that she couldn't even bother to close her mouth. Spit was oozing out and even that seemed like a nonissue.
Life was just so shitty now. It felt like there was no point to anything.
Two years prior her mother had passed away - a tragedy - at which point she quit school - a retarded mistake - in order to pursue acting - a failed delusion - so she could now spend her days wasting away not only in obscurity, but heart-wrenching loneliness that was quickly building up into despair.
She heard a door opening and the tap! tap! tap! of heels. Then Athena walked in, looking over-prepared even for a fashion show. She wore a dress of pristine white, tight all the way down to her navel and cut down the middle; there was no bra and the breasts were left mostly visible, but looked to be held in place without any hope of slipping out. But below that the dress became loose and pleated, coming down only to her brown thighs. Combined with the heels, it made her legs look super long - not only stunning, but tall and physically powerful as well.
Like the most expensive chocolate wrapped in the most desirable wrapper. I could be an ad girl.
"Sorry," said Athena. "Bothering you again. No free sockets in our room. He's got like three goddamned laptops plugged in, for whatever reason. Anyway I don't want to break anything."
Our room? As in it's also yours?
That sounded bad.
Realizing her own situation, Elisha quickly sat up and rubbed the spit from her cheek, ashamed of how she must have looked. And smelled.
Athena bent down to plug in her charger, then rose and dusted her hands. A smile. "There. Mind if I sit with you for while? Us girls have to keep each other company in such desperate no-phone times."
Elisha smiled back. "Please."
Athena sat down next to her, careful to keep her exquisite dress from crumpling up.
The black girl smelled intoxicatingly sweet, and from the sideview Elisha could see the dramatic curvature of her soft-looking breasts.
Though she had never been into girls, Elisha found it hot just to think about what a guy in her position would be doing. Likely he would tear up Athena's little white dress and ravage her until all that was left was a wet and shuddering mess.
Elisha was no lesbian, but thinking of that was hot. Even if she wasn't a guy. It was like watching a porn in your head, sort of.
At length she noticed the golden chain dangling around Athena's neck, and her heart sank, expecting the worst. "Anything hanging from there?"
Athena was confused for a moment, then smiled and drew the chain around and fixed it up, till a heavy diamond hung between her breasts, all asparkle. "Do you like it? It was a gift."
It was my mother's,
thought Elisha sourly.
Mine.
"It's nice."
"Yeah, your dad's good to me like that."
"Is that why you like him? I mean, I'm not saying you're a gold-digger or anything; but why are you with him? He's the most annoying person alive. And the most boring."
Athena gave her a wicked look. "Not always."
Elisha felt so disarmed and discomforted that she cringed and looked away. "You have sex?" she asked at length.
Athena laughed. "You really want to know?"
"I don't know."
"We do stuff, yeah.
We do what we do
," she said in a stereotypical black way, then giggled.
Elisha remained quiet, trying to get the horrible image out of her head. How did they even fuck? How did it not kill him?
